Then there is Barbie.  Once in a while I don’t feel qualified to write a review about a specific film and this is one of those times.  I’m not a Barbie person.  I knew of the dolls, of course, but I don’t remember even playing with them at any time.  Ken?  He was just a joke.  Skipper?  No memory.  And the others I don’t think I ever knew existed.  Now a studio has gone and made a major motion picture about this iconic toy, one which compares the utopia of Barbieland against our own misogynistic excuse for a culture, and I am supposed to render judgment?  Fine.

Greta Gerwig’s film follows Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) from the utopia of Barbieland across the sea to Los Angeles (Barbieland seems to be someplace south of the Aleutian Islands, but warm and plastic).  Ken (Ryan Gosling) tags along, because he loves Barbie, and the L. A. scene completely rocks his worldview.  Barbie is overwhelmed with disappointment in modern America and agrees with Mattel executives (led by Will Ferrell) to return to her plastic home, but by then Ken has changed everything to reflect his own newfound sense of patriarchy.  It’s up to Barbie and all the other beautiful Barbies to put their high heels down and wrest power away from the stupid men and back into their own manicured hands.

I would never have thought that a movie about a toy could delve so deeply into the human condition.  Then again, that’s exactly what the Toy Story films did so well, so I shouldn’t be so surprised.  Then again, I would never have greenlighted a movie about toys.  Except maybe Hot Wheels.  They need a movie ’cause they’re so cool.  Anyway, the script by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach manages to explore feminism, consumerism, commercialism, existentialism, individualism and other isms in interesting, perhaps profound ways, mostly with welcome humor, clever in-jokes and every shade of pink imaginable.  I am not a fantasy fan and I didn’t care for every choice that the filmmakers made but I salute them for finding fascinating things to say and do.  It also helps, I think, that the Barbies and Kens are generally gorgeous.

Some audience members have evidently become quite emotional at some aspect(s) of Barbie.  I did not, although afterward I did meditate quite a while on the relationship between Ken, who romantically loves Barbie, and Barbie, who does not romantically love Ken.  I do think it quite remarkable that the script addresses this unrequited love situation, mainly from Barbie’s perspective, emphasizing that he should essentially get over it and find some self-worth instead of pining over her all of the time.  It is the inclusion of themes like this that adults can embrace and enjoy, themes that will help push this unexpected blockbuster past the billion dollar box office mark that Margot Robbie presciently predicted when the was pitching the movie to Warner Bros.  I have to admit that I am pleasantly surprised by this Barbie.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  31 July 2023.